Safety issues mounting for area schools

Virus, school shootings top list of concerns

“It took a pandemic to stop our children from getting killed in school.” Tony Montalto, president of Stand with Parkland

Much of the attention lately has been on keeping children safe from COVID -19 in Florida’s schools — not mass shooters. But this week, a panel created after the 2018 Parkland massacre met for the first time this year to revisit the issue of gun violence on Florida campuses. Some of their challenges: Funding for school safety programs created after Parkland has evaporated. Legislation failed to pass this year that would have enhanced the state’s school safety law. Schools also must cope with having to conduct schoolshooter drills in an era of social distancing.

Even though COVID is dominating headlines, now is not the time to get complacent about other threats, said Tony Montalto, president of the school safety group Stand with Parkland.

Children are suffering from anxiety and loneliness, and some are in abusive homes cut off from help, heightening the risk of violence, he said.

“The likelihood of a targeted attack increases after a break in attendance,” said Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting.

“Due to COVID, we have had the largest break in attendance that any student or teacher has faced. It is important for school districts to be prepared for that when school comes back.”

Here are where some of the Parkland priorities stand.

Lost funding

Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed about $41.5 million in funding for a state program to train armed school guards. That was one of a host of spending cuts he made as the state’s revenues plummeted because of the COVID-19 lockdown.

“The state took that money back and in essence defunded the guardian program,” said Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission.

“There was no money for guardian backgrounds, drug screenings, psychologicals, all the equipment and all the training costs.”

The Florida Department of Education scrambled to find other funds to keep training going, but Gualtieri said the program could face a $5 million shortfall. If state money can’t be found to plug that hole, school districts will need to find the funds, he said. DeSantis also vetoed $500,000 in funding for an expansion of Broward County’s real-time crime center, which allows law enforcement to monitor surveillance cameras in schools and coordinate a response during an emergency.

Bills didn’t pass

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission made a variety of recommendations to improve school safety.

But enhanced school safety measures ran out of time when the Florida Legislature wrapped up its work in March. The Legislature’s main school safety bill died on the last day of the legislative session because of disagreements over technical issues between the House and the Senate.

“Everything that we recommended that was in those bills died,” said Gualtieri, who is the sheriff in Pinellas County. “It didn’t go anywhere. We really didn’t make any progress at all.”

The legislation would have expanded mental health training for school safety officers. It also would have required school districts have emergency reunification plans for families.

It sought to give sheriffs greater oversight in ensuring school safety officers are properly trained.

Legislation that would have expanded gun background checks to cover private sales also failed to pass.

Panic alarms succeed

One success story involved legislation called Alyssa’s Law, which will allow school staffers and teachers to summon law enforcement with the touch of a cellphone button.

About $8 million needed to pay for the panic alarms survived DeSantis’ veto pen.

Lori Alhadeff, a Broward County school board member, championed the legislation, saying it would improve response time during an emergency.

The legislation was named in honor of Alhadeff ’s daughter, Alyssa, one of the 17 killed in the Parkland shooting. Montalto said he and other Parkland families will keep lobbying for reforms as students return to classrooms.